The LeBron James era has all but officially concluded. James has informed the Los Angeles Lakers that he will not be returning to the team in 2026-27 and thus sent shockwaves that are already reverberating throughout the NBA. At a time like this, it's difficult to find a silver lining.
If there's one reason for the Lakers to celebrate James' departure, however, it's that they can finally fullly commit to the timeline they're building along.
James has defied Father Time in an unprecedented manner, securing an earned All-Star nod at 41 years of age. The unfortunate truth about unprecedented feats, however, is that teams inevitably have no idea how to plan for what comes next.
That resulted in the 2020s being a decade built upon short-term moves that compromised the long-term integrity of the organization.
Lakers prioritized a short-term vision to build around LeBron James
Los Angeles traded first-round picks for three different point guards who were gone as quickly as they arrived: Russell Westbrook, Dennis Schröder, and Russell Westbrook. They have just one of their next three first-round draft picks and have no second-round draft picks until 2032.
To make matters worse, the Lakers have just one under-25 player who averaged even 15.0 minutes per game in 2025-26: Jake LaRavia, who fell out of the postseason rotation and will be an unrestricted free agent in 2027.
None of this is James' fault, but it is a product of Los Angeles building in accordance with his timeline. Given his age and the lack of historical context for how to proceed, the Lakers seemingly operated under the assumption that every season could be his last before retirement or the sharp decline that every athlete in every sport inevitably experiences at some point as they get older.
With a 27-year-old franchise player in Luka Doncic and a 28-year-old co-star in Austin Reaves, however, the Lakers need to be thinking about more than the present.
It's time to fully embrace the Luka Doncic era
Los Angeles clearly needs players who are ready to contribute as soon as the 2026-27 season. They also need up-and-comers whom they can develop on team-friendly deals, however, particularly in an era that emphasizes depth and internal development as pivotal factors.
Unless Doncic intends to retroactively accept a $113 million paycut, then the New York Knicks are not the proof the Lakers need that they can proceed otherwise.
Los Angeles also needs to invest in athletic, defensive-minded talent who can help support two offensively-inclined stars in Doncic and Reaves. James is by no means a bad defender, but asking a 41-year-old veteran with 1,622 games of regular season wear-and-tear to go all out on that end of the floor in a supporting role isn't necessarily the most reasonable approach based on the limitations of the human body alone.
Clearly, James is still a tremendous player. Perhaps he'll even be better in 2026-27 than the Lakers' new No. 2. The time had simply come to move on and embrace the era they traded for when they acquired Doncic in 2025.
James deserves endless praise for restoring the Lakers to relevance and delivering a championship. It was simply time to move on.
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